Abby Zimet: The Kids Have Had Enough

“The NRA is a terrorist organization.”

With evidence growing that prayer will not stop bullets from killing school children, the kids themselves are stepping up to be the grownups in the room and say the NRA and their fucking guns must go. Even as  wrenching stories continue to spill from the latest slaughter in Parkland, Fla., they join the fierce outrage:  Public and private figures calling out Republicans who took NRA blood money, reporters chasing them down to demand solutions, the mother of a dead child screaming Trump’s complicity with many others, the bereaved community gathering not just to light candles but chant “No More Guns,” and thoughtful people explaining that, yes, gun control is entirely feasible, and its lack therein grotesque.

But oh, the poignant, livid, courageous grieving of kids declaring it’s time to protect them, not guns – this is new, and powerful. Just down the road from Parkland, students at South Broward High School walked out of classes to march and chant with signs proclaiming, “Your Silence Is Killing Us” and “The NRA Is A Terrorist Organization.” Kids elsewhere joined them and continue to speak up. We are dying, they say, and we do not accept that. The chorus swells. Vote all the blood-soaked lackeys out, that these kids can live. Just lookit ’em.

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“No more guns” chant breaks out at #Parkland school shooting vigil. pic.twitter.com/gTbdlpIC0i

— Adam Kuperstein (@Adam4NY) February 16, 2018

Teen protest photos by Johanne Rahaman/ HuffPost. Other photos Facebook/Twitter

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First published in Common Dreams.